Boys and Their Toys
It's getting tense at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas. This is the traditional gathering of techies and geeks, the one we all dream to attend. This is the place to see what's new and coming in the wonderful world of gadgets. If the Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius, the CES motto is Tenuius, Citius, Intellegentior. Thinner, faster, smarter.
There are televisions with built-in computers a fraction of an inch thick, and laptops thinner still, and smartphones thinner even than that. You can talk to your TV to change channels and talk to your car to fetch your email and read it to you while you keep your eyes on the road. There are refrigerators that will tell your smart phone as you enter the grocery store that you're out of you're out of milk. There are washer/dryers that you can start, stop, or change cycles from anywhere on the Internet, and a robot vacuum cleaner with a video camera so you can spy on the babysitter. There are gadgets that nag you to eat less and exercise more and analyze your bodily fluids. And more!
Apple doesn't show off products at CES. But they're there, as the ones who everyone is imitating or hoping to beat. This ultrabook is thinner than the Macbook Air! That smartphone is faster than iPhone! You can talk to our TV just like you'll be able to talk to the (unannounced and mythical) Apple TV! Acer's got a cloud just like Apple's iCloud service! Hey, look over here! It's another iPad killer!
Microsoft has given the keynote for the past 14 years, but this is their last. Like Apple before them, they're big enough to really have nothing to gain by scheduling their production cycle around the annual CES conference.
And there's one other group missing from this year's CES: the Adult Entertainment Expo. The two shows have customarily run in the same week - CES and the AVN Awards, porn's Oscar, at the end of the week. In fact, the two shows were once together. Back in the days when the big consumer electronics were Betamax and VHS players, the adult entertainment sector where there to show off the reason you want to buy one. They split as both industries matured. Bored with looking at silicon-enhanced kitchen appliances? Wander over and meet the silicone-enhanced stars of adult movies!
This year there appears to have been scheduling conflicts, and the Adult Entertainment Expo is scheduled for the end of next week instead. According to Paul Fishbein, the founder of AVN, surveys of attendees at the fan events showed that 30 percent came from CES. “It was a tradition,” Mr. Fishbein said. “Everyone was used to it.”
Yes, things are looking tense at CES this year...
There are televisions with built-in computers a fraction of an inch thick, and laptops thinner still, and smartphones thinner even than that. You can talk to your TV to change channels and talk to your car to fetch your email and read it to you while you keep your eyes on the road. There are refrigerators that will tell your smart phone as you enter the grocery store that you're out of you're out of milk. There are washer/dryers that you can start, stop, or change cycles from anywhere on the Internet, and a robot vacuum cleaner with a video camera so you can spy on the babysitter. There are gadgets that nag you to eat less and exercise more and analyze your bodily fluids. And more!
Apple doesn't show off products at CES. But they're there, as the ones who everyone is imitating or hoping to beat. This ultrabook is thinner than the Macbook Air! That smartphone is faster than iPhone! You can talk to our TV just like you'll be able to talk to the (unannounced and mythical) Apple TV! Acer's got a cloud just like Apple's iCloud service! Hey, look over here! It's another iPad killer!
Microsoft has given the keynote for the past 14 years, but this is their last. Like Apple before them, they're big enough to really have nothing to gain by scheduling their production cycle around the annual CES conference.
And there's one other group missing from this year's CES: the Adult Entertainment Expo. The two shows have customarily run in the same week - CES and the AVN Awards, porn's Oscar, at the end of the week. In fact, the two shows were once together. Back in the days when the big consumer electronics were Betamax and VHS players, the adult entertainment sector where there to show off the reason you want to buy one. They split as both industries matured. Bored with looking at silicon-enhanced kitchen appliances? Wander over and meet the silicone-enhanced stars of adult movies!
This year there appears to have been scheduling conflicts, and the Adult Entertainment Expo is scheduled for the end of next week instead. According to Paul Fishbein, the founder of AVN, surveys of attendees at the fan events showed that 30 percent came from CES. “It was a tradition,” Mr. Fishbein said. “Everyone was used to it.”
Yes, things are looking tense at CES this year...